


long may your innocence reign

by goldendrachma



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Gen, Protect At All Costs, my baby adrien, this is agnsty i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 17:15:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16917012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldendrachma/pseuds/goldendrachma
Summary: Adrien Agreste has been trying his whole life to be something else. Turns out, he grew right into what he was meant to be.





	long may your innocence reign

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Woman Sculpted: Etiquette for the Shaping of Girls into Young Ladies](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15941654) by [FullmetalArchivist (1stTimeCaller)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/1stTimeCaller/pseuds/FullmetalArchivist). 



> Please enjoy my 5 am inmsonia induced writing. I don't know where this came from, and I don't know if I'm pleased or not with this piece yet. Comments and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!
> 
> The title is from Be Still by The Killers.

Etiquette for Elite Boys of the Twentieth Century by Bastien Roux was the first book Adrien Agreste ever received as a gift. It was a present from his tutor on his fourth year of tutoring. On his fourth year of not going to school with other children. It turned out his tutor was his mother. So, in reality, it was a gift from his father but given through his mother. So, as was expected of him, and as was thoroughly instructed in the book, Adrien dutifully learned its contents to become the proper boy that was customary to every boy raised in a respected and wealthy family as the book commanded.

At his ripe age of ten years old, Adrien procured to learn the book cover to cover despite not understanding some of the contents within the pages. For instance, Adrien tried to figure out what exactly Head of the House meant and why exactly it depicted only men in that position. It didn’t make sense because his home was run by not only one but two women: Mother and Nathalie. He wondered how the book expected him to become a proper boy if it didn’t cover all the questions he had. And why did the book emphasized so much on being addressed firstly in order to speak? He was only ten years old but he already knew that the rule shouldn’t be there. According to the boy, you had to be stupid to talk to someone before being addressed. Adrien, glad knowing that he at least had one rule already ingrained, felt proud at his closer approach at reaching being a proper boy.

But it wasn’t enough. He never wanted to feel the inadequacy he felt when, for the first time since the book was given to him, his Father exited his office and joined Mother and him for dinner. Never in those occasions had he asked about his schoolwork, or whatever Adrien was learning that the supposedly head of the house deemed appropriate for his heir. However, it seemed, he was only interested in the grey bounded book. Feeling lost at his father’s question, Adrien lowered his head and hid behind his bangs in shame because he was not enough of a dutiful son if he didn’t know which tie knot was always too informal to use for business events. So for all he was worth, Adrien Agreste made his best attempt at learning the book, learning until every detail was memorized. Only a handful of other times did Father grace them with his presence at dinner, solely to ask once again about the damn book Adrien was starting to despise. 

Thus was how the heir to the Agreste throne in the fashion kingdom knew at the young age of eleven years how he was supposed to address different kinds of people depending on their status, how to dress depending on the occasion, how the utensils placed on the table were to be used for each sort of food, and most importantly, he knew eight different tie knots and five different bow ties as well (he even learned which types of shoes were never meant to mix up with certain tie knots according to the occasion, and that wasn’t described on the book).

But Adrien knew all along that all this crammed up knowledged wasn’t for his sake but for the good of his family, or rather for the Agreste Company. Sad how Gabriel Agreste needn’t to show the perfect family man facade, for things would’ve been at least better in some gullible way. Although, Adrien supposed it was good to never be too enthralled in a fairy tale that was not true and never will be. Gabriel Agreste needed to show that his family was worthy of the high class they belonged, no one dare to question the place of the Agreste family in the world. Sure, Adrien knew how to act as asked, how to be polite and how to be the nice little boy with the nice little smile Father’s employees taught him so well. Adrien never in his life felt that being proper or fancy came naturally to him, but he never knew otherwise, so he had to act as the book taught him how to. After all, Adrien rarely interacted with kids his age, except for Chloe Bourgeois and even in his lack of knowledge he understood that she wasn’t the best example for how to socialize. So the book became his compass and guide for all the interactions he was to ever make. 

At thirteen, Adrien considered all this merely a job, where his job was to be a dutiful son. Surely, his modeling jobs paid well and when he finally would gain access to that money he would regard it as the payment for his full time job that didn’t even have paid vacations. Everything that wasn’t the man he was to become by the book standards came not even remotely second or third in the list of chores and objectives of his job and priorities of Gabriel Agreste. 

Throwing tantrums was not being a proper boy, even if said boy was six years old and crying because he was bored. Pouting also was not as he so soon learned when being quite immediately passed into the arms of his mother. Asking for more food even when his strict dietary regime left much to be desired by his grumbling stomach was downright improper. Requesting more piano lessons and less fencing lessons was not nowhere near in the top priorities of the month in either Father’s or Nathalie’s agenda so he didn’t even bother asking the next month as they had both told him to do. So yes, his whole life was dictated by a grey old book too worn by use that he admitted nowhere proudly he had read too many times and had learned by heart cover to cover.

Oh, but how things changed when Mother disappeared, though. He was almost turning fourteen when he never saw her again after her trip to Milan where she went to visit her family alone. He never heard the word death but only missing, but it was all the same to him. If she wasn’t there, then it was as well his house was dead. With her gone, there wasn’t anybody to persuade Gabriel to let his son have some minor liberties. Nothing too outrageous. Liberties like having a piece of chocolate once in a while or cancelling one of his classes scheduled due in his birthday. With her gone, those privileges also disappeared with everything good he knew in the place Adrien could never call home. He never felt so utterly alone in his life, and he had been alone his whole life.

Despite everything, he never quit being the good son he knew too well how to play the part by now. The book got even more worn down. Unexpectedly, the book took a melancholic feeling for him. That damn book he hated but weirdly enough didn’t hate enough to burn or throw across his very huge room until it was nothing but a mess of strewn pages. After all, the tutor at the time the book was given to him was none other but Mother. She was a strict but merciful teacher, so unlike all the other strangers that he never got to know well enough because they left as soon as Gabriel didn’t find his teachings of his liking or didn’t suit his needs anymore (Gabriel’s needs of course).

He was well into his fourteen when destroying everything that damned book represented was a real opportunity that came with a leather suit and a god he couldn’t quite explain how he existed at all, but he was never one to contradict authorities and he was sure gods fell into the authority category. Old habits die hard, he guessed. 

In the moment he roamed the skies of Paris for the first time clad in leather, he knew, like always suspected, that he was never meant to be a proper boy. How could he, when he never felt as alive and vibrant and he did while taking part in actions that obviously weren’t meant for proper boys. Notwithstanding, he learned his dutifulness was never an act. It simply was for the person it certainly did not deserve it. His duties, however, changed objective and all his efforts went into protecting the city he grew to love, and most importantly, to the lady he called his partner. His counterpart in crime fighting gave him a sense of purpose that was his to choose whether to follow or not. It wasn’t imposed and he didn’t feel pressured. There was a liberty he never was aware to have in choosing his path. He also learned how to be his own person and make his own decisions. He also rapidly grasped that disputing her plans or a certain strategy wasn’t impolite but appreciated. That baffled him for whole three days when he dared for the first time and even more so when the outcome had been good. 

Like the improper boy he always assumed to be, he got into fights, laughed way louder than the norm accepted and flirted merrily and shamelessly. If there had been a counting system for being proper, he positively had already lose all the points. Being a good boy, or a man, or a person, was never in his personal goals, but rather forced upon him. All his life he tried not to be defined by how good or proper or polite he was. Although, ultimately, he still strived to be good, only because his partner in red inspired him to be so.

Now, after ten years of being a superhero to Paris and its citizen, the villain they never thought to defeat resulted to be none other than his Father. Adrien could understand his reasons but not his means. Gabriel’s ends did not justify the means, in his opinion. Whatever goal was in his Father’s inescrutable mind. The book never had instructions on how to read the faces of a stony faced parent and of a poor replacement of a mother figure that was an assistant. However, Adrien figured something out with the whole unexpected (but not entirely surprising) outcome: that being good or bad didn’t depend on whether one’s efforts were put into being good or bad. Being one or the other was because of how you were by nature. Adrien failed his whole life to be the opposite his Father wanted, that is a dutiful son, but he came to be much more than Gabriel raised him to be. Even all his efforts put into not being good turned out useless. His Father, on the other hand, would never redeem himself and was never really good nor dutiful. He was just too good a schemer to let anyone ever see he was anything other than a strict CEO and even stricter father. Even his son never outright declared in the darkness of his room of his father being less than a decent parent. He didn’t even admit Gabriel was a poor excuse of a parent and a neglectful one at that until he was well into his late teen years. 

By a miracle he attributed to his partner and the friends he made along the way in public school, Adrien Agreste did not become a bad person. Some even said he didn’t even had a bad hair in his body. Despite the background that pointed to a possible superhero gone rogue (like the many cases Plagg had had but never wanted to recall), the mini god saw all the good that his boy could encompass within himself and trusted him to always strive to be better than his father.

Regardless of the efforts made by Gabriel Agreste to make his son a good heir, it weren’t his efforts the ones that raised him to be a proper human being. It was because of him but no by him. He became good because Hawkmoth glorified the bad. If it weren’t by the supervillain, Chat Noir would’ve never become such a good and pure hearted man he came to be. Too bad Gabriel Agreste wouldn’t be able to see how his son became CEO to Agreste Company and grew into the perfect heir he could’ve asked. He would have to enjoy it behind bars only if Adrien even deign him with a visit.

Adrien didn’t visit, not until seven years had passed when he went to tell him his wife was expecting their first child and how satisfied it made him think that his child would never meet their grandfather. Before leaving, his son made a last promise, that he would never follow his example of his sorry excuse of parenting. And Adrien made sure to give his father one last gift as he dumped a worn down book titled Etiquette for Elite Boys of the Twentieth Century by Bastien Roux given on his fourth year of tutoring in the table. He left his Father never to see him or hear from him again. 

Gabriel Agreste didn’t remember the book nor its origin but when he lifted his eyes to ask his son, he was already gone.


End file.
